


Tanabata

by Yoko_Fujioka



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: M/M, but more in an introspective way, death of old age, i don't think it's even sad, it has a super happy ending though!!, more just calm, questionably angsty really, super sappy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-08
Updated: 2015-07-08
Packaged: 2018-04-08 06:51:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,298
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4294836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yoko_Fujioka/pseuds/Yoko_Fujioka
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"It was a little lonely that he didn’t get to properly say goodbye besides the quick peck and “goodnights” they had exchanged last night, but then again they were at the point where they could portray “I love you” to each other without actually saying it, and he knew at the very least the greenette had heard it just as clearly as he had in their exchange last night."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tanabata

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LiaoftheDawn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LiaoftheDawn/gifts).



> Wrote this at 11 last night because I am the procra-sto-matic. whOOP REPRESENT.
> 
> Gifting this to miss Lia for all her wonderful works, it's been such a pleasure to follow your writing for so long and watch you grow, my dear!! A year ago I told a friend of mine I was recommending your fics that I could see where your amazing potential was, even if you hadn't realized it yet, but I can definitely see where your gears are starting to turn and make great uses of your wonderful ideas! Happy birthday my dear, I'm hoping to spend yet another year in this fandom with you~~!! ~~it would've made more sense to post this tomorrow in this sense, but since this was a holiday-specific fic I decided to post it accordingly~~ ╮(─▽─)╭ 
> 
> ~~once again the proof-reading on this is minimal, I really, really need a beta-tester so bad it's not even funny anymore, please help you guys~~ ヽ(´□｀。)ﾉ

It was a peaceful May morning when it happened, the country air still a bit chilly from the morning dew as birds could be heard cheerfully chirping even though the thin-paper doors, which had been slid open to let the breeze through. Kazunari wasn’t getting any younger but he was in much better shape than Shintarō was, the latter male mostly healthy but with severe arthritis and trouble moving around in his old age, so the shorter ravenette, even more so with how much he hunched over at this point, was making breakfast for the both of them.

 _‘Eight decades were good to you’_ Kazunari could only think serenely, not a single drop of sorrow in his bones when he slid the door to their shared room open, placing their food beside the futon to follow close behind, smiling sort of assuredly when he realized the other man’s chest was no longer moving. It was a little lonely that he didn’t get to properly say goodbye besides the quick peck and “goodnights” they had exchanged last night, but then again they were at the point where they could portray “I love you” to each other without actually saying it, and he knew at the very least the greenette had heard it just as clearly as he had in their exchange last night. 

Kissing his beloved’s forehead before pushing a few strands of hair back behind his ear, Kazunari tucked the man’s covers better over his shoulders one last time, even though it seemed like he slept as motionless as he did when he was a teen so there wasn’t much adjusting to really be done. Still Kazunari stood up with a little grunt and a soft, closed-fisted punch to his knees in order to get the right one to straighten out correctly, knocking his aching left shoulder with the same hand as he turned back towards the hallway where the corded phone was. He wouldn’t rush into the funeral preparations, it would entirely ruin Shintarō’s peaceful death to make a big, crying deal out of it after all, but he knew if he didn’t tell his daughter (and his son, by forfeit, but she was the one who was really worried) she’d end up chewing his ear off when she came over with the grand-and-great-grand-kids again. 

Pausing in front of another open door along the hallway, looking out at what was technically their backyard, Kazunari took a deep inhale and then an exhale, a small but happy smile on his face. Shintarō had been incorrigible, wanting to stay in Tokyo and work for as long as he possibly could, which was getting more and more impossible with his limited movement, and in the end Kazunari would be more than glad to have this be both of their final resting places, away from the hustle and bustle of the city. He knew that the calm air had done a lot of good for the both of them, both physically and mentally, these past few years. 

Finding himself lost in the memories of everything they had shared, Kazunari ended up waking up from what was either a dream or a memory, he wasn’t quite sure, to the sensation of his stomach rumbling. Noticing the sun was much higher in the sky now, the dark-haired man chuckled to himself, promising just a small snack to get by before he contacted all of their family and remaining high school friends.

After a while, he just found himself talking to the air sometimes, babbling on before he even remembered the other man wasn’t there anymore. Sometimes he stopped, embarrassed, but others he would continue on, more than sure that the other man was somewhere listening to him.

*

“Mooooom, aniki stole my wish!!!” a small child whined, a frown-pout on his little face as he puffed his cheeks out and looked between his mother and his sibling as if impatient to see the reactions of both at the same time. His elder brother merely stuck his tongue out, and his mother sighed, rubbing her temples. 

“Kids, there’s no rule that you can’t both have the same wish, now tie your papers to the tree and go off to play already!!” She chided, although the two seemed to ignore her, getting up and running in circles around the futon placed directly in the middle of the room, laughing and screaming as they tried to grab the little scraps of paper from one another. To the side, an older child sat on the edge of the outdoor hallway, legs swinging slightly as he merely sighed and tied his own wish neatly.

“Sorry grandpa, I know this isn’t exactly a peaceful environment” The woman apologized slightly, although she still smiled a little bit, a motion which Kazunari echoed in spades.

“What are you talking about, if you should have learned anything from the way I raised your mother, it’s that-“

“Those who enjoy life are winners” she finished, rolling her eyes, and despite being well into his eighties, Kazunari’s pout still rivaled his great-grandson’s in childishness. She gave him a look of disbelief, but they still both ended up bursting out laughing, both boys suddenly stopping their play in order to look first at each other, than at their older relatives as if they were alien life forms. 

“Is great-grandpa happy?” The youngest wondered, looking somewhat confused, and Kazunari realized that his mother must have told him what death was on the way here, since he was told that she had given a much more simplified answer when Shintarō had died.

“Uh-huh!” Kazunari replied, smile even brighter than usual. The slightly elder brother looked a bit unsure, obviously more aware about what was going on, but they both smiled wide and bright right back, even their quieter cousin, hanging back from the rest of his family, looking happy for the first time that day.

“What I was really going to say, though, was that having a loud, happy family like this just shows how much we all love each other. More than being in some dull, smelly hospital room, this is perfection right here.” Kazunari declared looking up at the ceiling, so sure he wasn’t just imaging his beloved’s face smiling right back at his from up there.

“I’m gonna change my wish, then!!” The youngest declared loudly. His brother, however, seeming to understand exactly what his new idea was, protested loudly that he had already thought of it so he couldn’t use it anymore. The same argument flashed up again, and all the older members, Kazunari’s daughter, his son and two granddaughters all laughed happily, enjoying the tea and mumbled conversations over the high peal of the wind chime hanging from the doorframe.

*

Kazunari hadn’t realized that he had fallen asleep until he awoke to find the sky ablaze with sunset’s rosy pinks, cornflower blues and golden yellows. His other granddaughter was squatting beside him when he turned his head away from the backyard and towards the rest of the house, smiling gently. He managed to return it, although somehow the overly soft coloring of the entire scene, almost like a watercolor painting, along with how heavy and slow-moving his limbs suddenly seemed to be made him wonder if it was all a dream. Helping him out of bed with the help of her father, the two eased Kazunari towards the outer hallway, gently setting him down so that he could watch everyone else chase after fireflies in the early twilight, laughing high in the air as he found it harder and harder to keep his eyes open. One of the children screamed in delight only to cry out when the lightening bug escaped through a hole between his clenched fist, laughing and chasing after it again when it flew high in the sky only to return right back to earth and settle on a tell stem of grass nearby.

“Here, you can make a wish, too” his son nudged him slightly, bringing his attention back to all the people sitting with him on the edge of the hallway, but he was so sleepy he could barely keep his eyes open. Still he managed to read two of the wishes when someone out of his line of sight brought the tree closer to him, one reading in still messy, shaking characters _I want great-grandpa to live forever_ after _all the candy I could ever want_ had been scratched out. On the piece of papar swinging in the breeze beside it, in slightly neater handwriting, were the words _for everyone to be happy together forever_.

Closing his eyes and turning his head slightly to the side, Kazunari suddenly felt almost a bell ring inside him, and then he just knew that he was ready. Keeping his eyes on the happy scene of the children playing, he felt his body fall slowly to the side, warm, comforting hands embracing him the last thing he was aware of before he slid into the warm, bright ocean below.

Awakening again to find himself looking up at the kind of milky way that never would have been visible back in Tokyo, Kazunari sat up and then stood to find that one, he had as much bounce as he did when he was in his twenties, no aching or tenseness at all, and that two, he was standing right in the middle of the air, a house that may or may not have been his own situated way down below.

Not sure what else to do, the ravenette moved half on instinct, half in curiousity towards the milky way, eager to see the stars as closely as he could, as enamored with them as he was. In the back of his mind, he could almost hear his mother’s soothing voice reading him a well-loved bedtime story with crumpled, sticky pages from sheer love. Before he could even begin to focus on the words or the cover, however, he saw a person in the distance, at first slowly quickening his cadence although it sped up even more when he saw the back of someone with a hair color no-one else could quite have. 

However, looking down at his feet, he suddenly noticed something that made him skid to a stop, eyes wide when he realized how _close_ he had been to happiness…

The milky way was entirely blocking his path, lighting Shintarō behind it with a soft, faerie-like glow.

Suddenly a flock of magpies came and bridged a path, and with a loud, bright laugh Kazunari suddenly remembered, the fairytale of true love he had loved so innocently but now seemed so ridiculous in real life…it really didn’t keep the tears from the falling, though, and Kazunari couldn’t tell if they were from happiness or disbelief. It didn’t matter either way, though, because Shintarō was looking at him now, attempting to frown at first although it quickly melded into the kind of smile Kazunari had always like best, warm and oozing of home.

*

 _’Crap, I am so, so, sososo screwed, what am I gonna do if he left already?! Is he gonna dump me just for this?? I don’t even know whether I could put something that silly past him or not…’_ Kazunari panicked internally, racing down the streets of Tokyo as fast as he possibly could, although even the summer training camp from hell didn’t seem to increase his pace enough to make up for all the lost time. This was their first real date other than the usual meals at maji-burger and extra practice/games with their friends, but they had been doing couple-y stuff all that time, and they honestly done the same stuff minus the PDA before they were even dating, so why was he all crazy about this now?!

Too late to wonder about it now, he had been so overexcited last night that he had trouble falling asleep, causing him to sleep through his alarm and was now epically, unbelievably late. 

Seeing the greenette in a brown cardigan with similarly colored pants sitting beneath (and looking like just another) tree in the distance, Kazunari couldn’t help but snicker although he increased his pace anyway, breathing heavily as he approached only to throw nearly his entire weight upon the unsuspecting man’s back with a cheerful smile and a “Shin-chan, were you lonely~?”

Perhaps not his best idea, sure, but he meant to lighten the mood a bit, not that the other seemed to really understand that.

He got a heavy flick to the forehead in retribution (the greenette had been much nicer about not hitting him upside the head ever since they started dating, which Kazunari was incredibly glad for), making him wince with an overdramatic whine. When he looked up, eyes closing slightly from the sun’s glaring rays, however, the expression on the other man’s face very nearly made his chin drop to the pavement.

*

“What even took you so long?” Shintarō’s words overlapped exactly with the memory, although his smile was much softer, more natural, than his teenage self probably could have ever managed. Kazunari liked to think that most of that was because of him, but he knew that their victories on court, everything they went through together and on their own, the children they had and raised together, that was really what changed the both of them.

“Oh c’mon, I’m not even that late” His old response slipped nicely off the tongue, and he liked to think his smile was more cheeky than affectionate, but he really couldn’t tell, his face was buried so deeply in his beloved’s soft sweater, just so, so glad to be able to hold him and make yet another life with him, this one hopefully eternal.

 

❤ HAPPY END ❤

**Author's Note:**

> It's really not to supposed to be sad...more reminiscent, I guess?? Even if Kazunari had been the first to die I'm sure Shin-chan would have reacted the same way, they were ageing fast and both prepared, I guess is the best way to put it. I'm a sucker for this kind of atmosphere <3
> 
> Funnily enough I thought I was going to be posting a crap-ton of fics since I had so many ideas for midotaka week on tumblr, but unfortunately a lot of the ideas ran away with me and are either really long and still not done yet or I've lost too much interest to even start, so there's no time quite like the present!! **literally nothing motivates or elates me more than reviews, even just general ones, although criticism is even better!! If you want to see more from me, this is the way to do it!!!**
> 
>  
> 
> _also, Kazu's death is supposed to be within the 49-day period, so Shin's death was researched to the smallest degree possible. Same with the tanabata legend. //shot_


End file.
